It doesn't really sound like the boss is providing a working prototype. It sounds like the boss provides throwaway code that is a step or two better than a screenshot or whiteboard drawing.
He's frustrated that his boss is basically doing the equivalent of, "I heard about NoSQL at a conference today, all our competitors are using it, please switch us from MySQL to NoSQL. It will be great"
(Then a week after the switch is done; "Have you heard about postgresql...?")
